Roland DYENS (1955-2016)
Songe Capricorne [5:36]
Trois Saudades [13:38]
Tango en Skai [2:48]
From ‘20 Lettres’:
Lettre noire [1:50];
Lettre mi-longue [1:57];
Lettre encore… [1:31]
Hommage à Villa-Lobos [11:09]
Gottingen (Barbara, arr.R.Dyens) [3:43]
Anna Mnich (guitar)
rec: 2019, Teaneck Sound Studio, Teaneck, USA
Self published [42:13]
Over recent decades the options for artists, in all genres, to self-promote has become greater,
and more diversified: social media, YouTube, and private recording studios have diminished the control by international recording companies and publishing houses. No longer do they control who enters the market and under exactly what circumstances. This disc presents the efforts of a relatively unknown guitarist not only to display her talents, but to also pursue an international inculcation of guitar audiences, probably impossible through the traditional routes. She has self-published this CD and sought alternative marketing support.
Anna Mnich, originally from Poland, commenced her studies of guitar at the age of ten with Amadeusz Kokot. She holds degrees from the Academy of Music in Katowice and the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Wanda Palacz and David Starobin respectively. As a member of the Silesian Guitar Octet, Mnich gave concerts in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. She also recorded with Polish Radio National Symphonic Orchestra of Katowice. She is currently an active performer based in Brooklyn NY.
An inaugural recording does not usually present the works of just one composer, but rather a more eclectic mix. On this occasion the programme is all from the pen of Roland Dyens. Mnich explains that she first heard Songe Capricorne while in her early teens at a guitar Festival in Poland, and was immediately drawn to its beautiful harmonies and improvisation-like style. She felt an immediate need to learn it, and revisits the music every few years to see what other aspects of the piece she can discover. The selection of music comprises pieces Minch has played for many years, and others which, in the past, circumstances have prevented her learning, but she believes are interesting. The whole process was a ‘very personal and intimate project with music that holds a special place in my heart.’
All the music on the CD was composed by Roland Dyens except Gottingen by singer Monique Andree Serf (Barbara), who made it famous in the 1960s, and which is arranged here for guitar by Dyens. In Addition to being a fine concert guitarist and composer, he was also an outstanding arranger. One of the most brilliant examples of his skills in that discipline is the Aria from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Villa-Lobos. In this arrangement Dyens explores the polyphonic capabilities of the guitar with so much happening that the score appears on double staves.
Anna Mnich’s appreciation of the music, and attachment to it, shines through conspicuously in each piece. Listeners will struggle to find a superior rendition of Tango en Skai in recorded Dyens repertory. She has the technical skills and musical sentiment to probe the inner soul of each piece. Her sense of rhythm is laudable and she plays with a refined tone. The impressive instrument used for this recording was made by Polish luthier Jaroslaw Bilan. The recognition of all these aspects is enhanced by a sonically well-recorded disc.
For those less familiar with the music of Dyens, particularly more obscure pieces, the appreciation process will probably follow a similar path to the music of composers such as Leo Brouwer: it takes repeated listening to get to the heart of it. In this instance the sweeteners in that process are Songe Capricorne, Tango en Skai and Gottingen .
For all the reasons expressed, this disc deserves to be heard widely.
Zane Turner
